Nootka Shaman’s Rattle

Nootka Shaman’s Rattle

This striking wooden rattle, consisting of many small whales, was collected by Fillip Jacobsen, a Norwegian journalist, on the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1897, the first year of the Museum’s Jesup North Pacific Expedition.

The rattle would have been used by a shaman of the Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth) community, the most famous whalers of the Northwest Coast on the Canadian side, along with their Makah relatives on the U.S. side.